Although Jack Hobey spent much of his early life in Midland, he had never heard of the 1937 robbery of the Chemical State Savings Bank on Main Street until a few years ago.

“I would never have done anything with this if the bank robbery hadn’t occurred in Midland, Michigan,” Hobey said in a recent phone interview from his home between Boyne City and Petoskey. “That intrigued me and I got into it.”

In his new book, “Lawless Years: The Tony Chebatoris and Jack Gracey Story,” Hobey details the lives of the two men who robbed the bank on Sept. 29, 1937, and the notoriety that surrounded the case.

The story is primarily set in the 1920s and 1930s - “Prohibition and the Depression, Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger … It’s a very vibrant time in the history of this country,” Hobey said.

The Midland bank robbery was one of many that occurred in the state during the period, but it was exceptional for a couple of reasons.

For one thing, a bystander, Henry Porter of Bay City, was shot by Chebatoris during the robbery and died the next month.

Gracey was shot and killed during the robbery by a dentist who had an office in the building next to the bank. Chebatoris was wounded but survived and was captured.

He was tried in federal court under a then-new bank robbery law and sentenced to death. The other distinctive feature of the case is that Chebatoris was hanged at the federal prison at Milan in 1938 - the only person executed in Michigan in the last 180 years.

It was that distinction that drew Hobey’s attention to the story. He saw a mention of Chebatoris in a news story about an alleged murder in a national forest near Ludington. In that case, the alleged murderer could face the death penalty because the murder was committed on federal property - despite the fact that Michigan does not have the death penalty.

Hobey, who lived in Midland from 1952 to 1967, previously wrote “Lost Boys: The Beulah Home Tragedy” and “Wish You Were Here: The Edward Beebe Story.”

“Lawless Years” provides impressive detail on the backgrounds of Chebatoris and Gracey, who spent much of their young adulthood in prison. The men met at the state prison in Jackson and were both involved in an unsuccessful escape plan in 1928.

By 1937, both men were out of prison and Gracey had been involved in several bank robberies. He had been casing the Midland bank for about a month before the robbery. He and Chebatoris - both living in the Detroit area - met in a Hamtramck pool room in September 1937, where Gracey told Chebatoris about his experience in robbing banks. Gracey invited Chebatoris to join him in robbing the Chemical State Savings Bank (now known simply as Chemical Bank).

Chebatoris came to the Detroit area from western Pennsylvania - and Hobey’s research took him there as well as other places.

“I traveled to western Pennsylvania, the Detroit-Hamtramck area … obviously I spent time in the Tri-Cities,” he said.

One factor in the story - particularly for Chebatoris - was inadequate advice from attorneys.

“It’s a story where you can definitely see the advantage of having good legal counsel as opposed to having bad legal counsel or no legal counsel,” Hobey said.

For example, the court-appointed attorneys for Chebatoris told him he had no grounds to file an appeal after he had been sentenced to death - even though Hobey describes how prosecutors “simplified, streamlined and trimmed” the charges against Chebatoris “to fit precisely within the framework of the 1934 National Bank Robbery Act.”

His attorneys, Hobey writes, swore in court that they “had no basis for making an appeal on behalf of Anthony Chebatoris, no reason to be involved any further with the man.” The attorneys told reporters after his brief sentencing hearing that they hadn’t even seen their client since his trial ended a month earlier, with one of them stating, “There will be no appeal unless he gets some money and some new attorneys.”

Another factor in the Chebatoris-Gracey story is the role of negative influences in their lives.

Gracey was in trouble early in life and was part of a “gang” by the time he was 15. Chebatoris was in prison by age 22.

“One theme of the book is that the friends you choose, the associations you make when you’re young have a great influence on your life,” Hobey said. “Particularly Gracey and those guys he hung out with, you can definitely see that influence.”

The reader gets a feel for the difficult circumstances of their lives, as well as the problems caused by their running with a bad crowd. A factor in the path they chose, Hobey suggested, is that “both went to prison for so long when they were so young.”

Hobey dedicates the book to “the Meadowbrook Boys 1957-1965,” and although he wouldn’t say too much about the group, he indicated that it shows how the company one keeps at a young age can have an influence for good.

“There will be people who definitely will identify with that,” he said.